No, I get that, but I'm American. I've just never heard anyone called a Trot. Commie, more likely.
― Their all losers and I like associating with loser (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 3 November 2016 21:55 (seven years ago) link
As in "he declared that the Corporation was a ‘nest of long-haired Trots.'" I've never seen this.
― Their all losers and I like associating with loser (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 3 November 2016 22:00 (seven years ago) link
Ah, it's really common over here. We do specific left-wing bickering more than fearing a general Red Menace.
― emil.y, Thursday, 3 November 2016 22:09 (seven years ago) link
Removal of Bush or Blair, unfortunately associated with Nazi (9)
I laughed so hard at this one.
― Snorting and all (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 7 December 2016 16:20 (seven years ago) link
ha
― banfred bann (wins), Wednesday, 7 December 2016 16:21 (seven years ago) link
Ha, that's excellent. Was that in the Guardian? Sounds like one for Private Eye.
― heaven parker (anagram), Wednesday, 7 December 2016 16:25 (seven years ago) link
Yes, Guardian.
― Snorting and all (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 7 December 2016 16:28 (seven years ago) link
Lol accepted. And yeah, v Private Eye
― woke cop, boo! (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 7 December 2016 17:21 (seven years ago) link
very good
― Neil S, Wednesday, 7 December 2016 19:16 (seven years ago) link
Guardian seasonal bumper prize xword has a theme of interest to those of this parish, or the adjacent one.
― the year of diving languorously (ledge), Sunday, 25 December 2016 16:12 (seven years ago) link
I've got all but two of the theme clues, can't explain two of them, never heard of one of them.
― the year of diving languorously (ledge), Sunday, 25 December 2016 17:54 (seven years ago) link
> I've got all but two of the theme clues, can't explain two of them, never heard of one of them
Xenia???
i liked this:
V Leading vocalist with a poor single (8)
have about 15 answers, have filled in exactly 1.
― koogs, Tuesday, 27 December 2016 18:46 (seven years ago) link
Yeah we got almost all of them before putting any in, but it came together fairly quickly after that. Forgot about xenia, is probably like the G, not famous but the only thing the setter could fit in the grid by that point. The F is the more well known one that I'd never heard of.
― the year of diving languorously (ledge), Tuesday, 27 December 2016 18:58 (seven years ago) link
are all the theme answers from the '80s? i haven't had a chance to really properly pore over it but I expected a few more to leap out at me...
I actually looked up Xenia and dismissed it on the grounds of being too obscure even for cryptic crosswords, haha
― lex pretend, Wednesday, 28 December 2016 08:43 (seven years ago) link
They're mostly eighties but not all.
― the year of diving languorously (ledge), Wednesday, 28 December 2016 10:30 (seven years ago) link
is F a fictional [theme] from a film? i don't understand the porridge bit.
i liked B, bit of dickens in there...
― koogs, Wednesday, 28 December 2016 12:29 (seven years ago) link
This has been quite enjoyable - have about three-quarters done, about ready to start fitting them in to see if that helps reveal the rest. E (non-theme) seems a bit cruel for the time of year
xp F is irl afaict, I think I figured out the porridge part with a bit of googling but not 100% sure
― forgive me fader for I have sinned (wins), Wednesday, 28 December 2016 14:49 (seven years ago) link
they do that thing that I hate tho (and complain about every bank holiday) of unnecessarily throwing in definitions to the "undefined" thematic clues, which makes a mockery of the whole conceit 😡
― forgive me fader for I have sinned (wins), Wednesday, 28 December 2016 17:08 (seven years ago) link
It's the setter showing off innit, doubly insufferably in the case of 'savoyard castle'. What was the porridge then, I couldn't get that even with googling.
― the year of diving languorously (ledge), Wednesday, 28 December 2016 17:43 (seven years ago) link
the w clue annoyed me so much too
re porridge, I'm not confident - the explanation I landed on doesn't really explain the king part, for one - but I'll go into it more in a day or so when ppl are ready for spoilers
― forgive me fader for I have sinned (wins), Wednesday, 28 December 2016 18:09 (seven years ago) link
i had one too many for F. n is a proper [theme] n + 1 is a fictional [theme]
― koogs, Wednesday, 28 December 2016 19:04 (seven years ago) link
I'm intrigued! I had an irl one that didn't fit any part of the clue and an irl one that kinda maybe sorta in parts
― forgive me fader for I have sinned (wins), Wednesday, 28 December 2016 19:15 (seven years ago) link
spoiler: this is wrong - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052809/
― koogs, Wednesday, 28 December 2016 19:39 (seven years ago) link
disappointed i didn't get the king part (have googled and it makes sense). but there's a bit of overlap with the rest of the clue so it didn't really matter (but it did).
― koogs, Wednesday, 28 December 2016 19:47 (seven years ago) link
thoroughly disliked this crossword, both extremely difficult and unsatisfying. the quarter of it i've managed to do, anyway. i think i'm actually getting progressively worse at cryptics though, and my patience for reference points only pensioners understand has worn thin
― lex pretend, Sunday, 1 January 2017 19:24 (seven years ago) link
the second V is maybe the worst cryptic crossword clue i've ever seen. both Ws are annoying for separate reasons. have no idea how to parse the first I. if what I have for the first T is correct it's a term that literally only exists on the internet in relation to this crossword. 90% of the theme answers are shit.
― lex pretend, Sunday, 1 January 2017 19:28 (seven years ago) link
also i have literally no ideas on how to get the second F, none at all
Oh yeah I never returned to that - looking now I haven't got the second V or either T, and my reasoning for F is shaky as F
― wins, Sunday, 1 January 2017 20:33 (seven years ago) link
ok I started fearlessly filling in answers and now I'm coming along pretty well, but yeah wtf at that second T I'd be interested to know if anyone has ever seen or heard that used
― wins, Sunday, 1 January 2017 21:06 (seven years ago) link
*first, rather
― wins, Sunday, 1 January 2017 21:07 (seven years ago) link
A box containing tar, carried by shepherds for anointing sores on sheep.
took some tracking down, have never come across this word in the wild as far as i remember
― Rock Wokeman (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 1 January 2017 21:31 (seven years ago) link
https://www.wordnik.com/words/tar-box
sources and a 19th century usage linked here
― Rock Wokeman (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 1 January 2017 21:33 (seven years ago) link
Yes but it doesn't mean 'shepherd', unless it's through even more obscure and unsourced synecdoche.
90% of the theme answers are shit
Is this a musical judgement?
― brekekekexit collapse collapse (ledge), Sunday, 1 January 2017 21:45 (seven years ago) link
The Cs annoyed me w/their references to sportsmen of decades ago
(admittedly the 80s = my era of pretending to be interested in sport for playground conversation, so I got that one, but still, 50 year old cricket references, grr)
― a passing spacecadet, Sunday, 1 January 2017 21:53 (seven years ago) link
I've got all but two clues now, I think I ultimately agree with lex but there is something very satisfying about fucking storming through it once you start chucking answers into the grid. Some horrible clues here tho yeah
― wins, Sunday, 1 January 2017 21:55 (seven years ago) link
a lot of what you'd loosely term general knowledge in this lot, which is a foul imo
― Rock Wokeman (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 1 January 2017 21:56 (seven years ago) link
and altho i've grown up taking it for granted i pretty much agree with lex and spacecadet, the cricket stuff is actively exclusionary in 2016
― Rock Wokeman (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 1 January 2017 22:00 (seven years ago) link
oh fuck that shit for sure, although I can imagine people saying the same thing about the "expressions I know cause I've heard granny say them" eg "never-never" as a synonym no one uses anymore for a term no one uses anymore, but I quite like them (and it's not like the centenarian retired civil servants who set these are capable of speaking any other language)
― wins, Sunday, 1 January 2017 22:07 (seven years ago) link
it's where the fresh blood comes in on from that puzzles me
― Rock Wokeman (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 1 January 2017 22:11 (seven years ago) link
I liked this puzzle, and I think some of the shoe-horned clues are inevitable when setting an A-Z jigsaw
― Neil S, Sunday, 1 January 2017 22:21 (seven years ago) link
that is fair enough I SUPPOSE but they should still be executed for putting definitions in the undefined clues
― wins, Sunday, 1 January 2017 22:30 (seven years ago) link
oh yes hanging's too good for them!
― Neil S, Sunday, 1 January 2017 22:36 (seven years ago) link
can someone explain "four pennies" to me now? My best guess is that "4p porridge" was a meme a few years ago due to Anne Jenkin
― wins, Sunday, 1 January 2017 22:36 (seven years ago) link
king = george rex = GRporridge = OATS
GROAT - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groat_(coin)
(also, a tanner = 6p in old money)
― koogs, Sunday, 1 January 2017 22:40 (seven years ago) link
morelike GROAN
(I forgot "could provide" as a reverse-clue thingy)
― wins, Sunday, 1 January 2017 22:44 (seven years ago) link
got the tanner thing obv, even tho unlike the setter I live in the time when George is not the King
― wins, Sunday, 1 January 2017 22:46 (seven years ago) link
oh yeah it is def v satisfying filling them all into the grid, working out which ones can go in first, etc, and I felt vaguely triumphant when I half-cheated/half-guessed some of the last few and suddenly worked out how the apparently inscrutable clue fitted together - yes, that is the usual joy of crosswords, but there were some particularly inscrutably surfaced clues here, for better or for worse
also either I was lucky or the grid was quite kindly and cleverly put together, in that I started filling in when I had maybe only half the answers worked out and tentatively filled in several spots which might also have fitted not-yet-solved ones and yet I didn't have to backtrack at all, so that was nice
but still, 3 clue types which are not my favourites: cricket + lots of wacky reverse clues (no real reason why I don't like these except that I'm bad at spotting them) + "undefined" clues which sort of are defined and you lose track of which words are clue and which are spurious definition and which are both or neither
― a passing spacecadet, Monday, 2 January 2017 00:19 (seven years ago) link
one I've just remembered not liking/not getting: the unthemed U, a double def where the answer doesn't fit the 1st half of the clue grammatically, and the second half doesn't seem great either
maybe I am just a parts of speech pedant and/or reading it wrong
― a passing spacecadet, Monday, 2 January 2017 00:27 (seven years ago) link
That was one I got pretty quickly but went "nah it can't be that surely" then saw that it had to be when I was jigsawing
― wins, Monday, 2 January 2017 00:37 (seven years ago) link
"expressions I know cause I've heard granny say them" eg "never-never" as a synonym no one uses anymore for a term no one uses anymore
how did this one even work?
the 50-year-old idioms/synonyms and cultural references only pensioners would get bug me more, and there are so many of them. feels like the actual current world of slang and linguistic evolution is completely untapped and i'm actually wondering, like NV, whether anyone involved has any idea of how to keep this going as an art form?
also, a lot of the time when an answer is outside your frame of reference it's still satisfying to see how it works and learn something new - enigmatist crosswords are always good for this - but this was both difficult and unsatisfying. seeing how the 4p porridge thing and never-never work are just like, oh, i don't give a shit about these.
― lex pretend, Tuesday, 3 January 2017 08:43 (seven years ago) link